[deepriver]

Back on 9/26 Jon Beilin recommended (http://www.digital-recordings.com/)as a place to get hearing testing gear. I just got my Audio-CD ($24.95) and have to recommend it to everyone if you care at all about preserving your hearing or knowing what parts of your music you're missing. It's easy to use - takes maybe 30-45 mins. once you understand the directions. But best of all it's a real eye opener (or it could be reassurance if you find you haven't had any loss). I now know my right ear is much better than my left which I would have never guessed. Now I can experiment with compensating with balance adjustments. I also now know I have some deficiencies from 5,000Hz. up so I can take that into account when I choose my playback settings.

If nothing else it gives you a baseline that you can compare periodic fututre results against so you know if you should get to the doc. or start staying away from fire engines or whatever.

One of the best things I've done since Igot serious about headphones. Thanks Jon.

 

[Vertigo-1]

What headphones and equipment did you use? I've had this CD for a while, but I've been afraid to use it due to poor background circumstances + uncertainty of which headphone to use, that can handle the frequencies at a safe volume. I've considered using Etymotics, but I don't believe Etymotics can hit above 16k.

 

[deepriver]

Vertigo-1: I used your old Sony MDR CD3000s. I wouldn't worry about being able to handle the volume. One of the things I got a kick out of about this are all the warnings and disclaimers about possible damage due to ears and equip. At one point on track 1, as you probably know by now, the narrator comes in with REDUCE VOLUME NOW[/B about 5 times. The test calibration track (2, I think) gives you a signal that is to be reduced to the absolute lowest level of audibility and, having done that, none of the test signals got anywhere near a painful or equip. damaging level. Of course, I guess if you're almost deaf and have to turn the volume up to max. to even hear the calibration signal your equip. might be in trouble, but in that case you'd probably already know you had hearing loss and wouldn't even be using this thing.

Your point about the frequency response of the cans is a good one. Of course, you can still get a reading on your hearing up to 16kHz which could still be helpful. One thing I want to do is run the test with my Senn 600s and the Grado 325s to see if the results match up and, if not, think about what that means about the relative merits of the headphones.

Forgot to mention that you're right about finding the right environment to take the test. I thought I was in a quiet room when I started, but had to quit to turn the furnace off and stop some clocks from ticking. And twice when a train went by about a mile away I had to stop until it was gone. The volume levels are LOW if you're doing it right.

 

[dngl]

Hey, you're welcome guys. I'm almost a hypochondriac when it comes to my hearing so that was one of the first things I bought. If you look really closely in the instruction book, it was developed with, among other things, a sony portable cd player and mdr-v6s. I would recommend sticking with one of their baseline setups to insure that the results are real 'cause headphones don't matter if you're deaf